This year, I have been faced with a challenge - a new room that I have never worked in. I've pulled it off well the last few weeks, but now my darling meat cleaver seems to have gone missing (damn morgue gremlin!). As such, I have decided to go with a forcefed/disembowlment type of scene, which should be particuarly effective as the next character down from me is a doggish type creature that I have been collaberating with. I know how to make the prosthetic to cover the bag of edible guts, but I am having a hard time thinking of something to make the guts of that would be edible for myself, the disembowlment victim and Pongo (doggish creature). I need something that will not have a distinct food smell when presented to customers in close quarters.

I have thought of combining oatmeal and pasta with red-colored honey watered down for blood. Not sure how much of that we would be able to eat though. Any ideas are greatly appreciated - the more disgusting and real looking, the better!!

Nope, wont work. They have a very distinct scent, both of them. We don't have to worry too much about putting on weight - between the sweltering temperatures in the house and the fact that we can actually chase people and that we never get fed at work anyways, lol.

As far as edible guts go, I'm drawing a blank. But you can get some to simply chew on at a small budget.

Get some beige pantyhose, cut off the legs, stuff em' with paper towels, and tie off the open ends. Place the filled pantyhose in a large bowl. Make a batch of red jello, but before you stick it in the fridge to cool, pour it into your bowl of pantyhose. Make sure all the "guts" are submerged (cook up more batches of jello if need be). Place it in the fridge and wait for the jello mix to solidify. When it's showtime, take the guts out of the bowl and wipe of the excess gelatin. Then pour on some blood. Yummy corn syrup blood, store bought blood, whatever floats your boat, just make sure what you use is non-toxic. Remember though, the guts are not meant to be eaten, just chewed on.

For innards, I suggest Jell-O. You can get clear gelatin (no smell) and color it with food coloring. It's edible, though I'm not sure without flavor it tastes very good. I also found that you can get clear casings at a grocery store or check a butcher shop. They're an edible form of plastic. (Just make sure you ask! Some of them, like ones in sporting good stores for hunters, need to be cooked first and are made from real pig material, and they'll make you sick uncooked.) They're relatively inexpensive. Rehydrate them, fill them with unflavored jello (for no smell) and chill.

Craisins make tasty scabs and "bits".

Have an open skull and make "brains" out of a cheese dip (anything fleshy colored works - add chunks if you want!). Just chill it in a brain mold.

For a heart, check out this page (inspired by Penn & Teller's book Play With Your Food)

String cheese, left out at room temperature and pulled with your teeth looks like ligaments. (Can you tell my kids LOVE this stuff? Warped even at 8 and 11 years old.)

One last thought - no matter what you do, it's all in the presentation!

In the past, I've used the thinly sliced lunch meats that you can get cheap at the grocery store. If you mix a few different types and shred them, then add a little almost-cooled gelatin and blood, they tend to lose the distinct smell you are talking about.

One gal uses raisins and 2 or 3 different types of jelly/jam mixed with spaghetti noodles. I'm not sure how she stomachs it being so sweet all night, though.

My suggestion when using real food is to make sure you keep it refrigerated, try to take small batches into the room with you and then have it replenished throughout the night. There's nothing worse than already gross-looking food, when it starts to get warm and could make you sick. Another suggestion, try not to use anything you normally like to eat, as after eating it consitently all night, night after night, you may not like it anymore.

Last year for our actors one night i made an edible brain (i bring food stuff in frequently to everyone). I took shrimp and cut the tails off and used a circular bowl to place them in ringing them up to the top and turning them in so that the tail ends were not visible. I then made a mix of clear gelatin and marinara sauce and poured it in the bowl. I froze it overnight and by the next night at the haunt after i turned the bowl upside down and shook it out onto a plate everyone had a chilled shrimp brain to snack on....it was there i discovered my dilema....noone wanted to eat something that looked that sickining.

OdetteDespairr

“Happiness is the sublime moment when you step out of your corset at the end of the night.”

“Actors love mental disorders, dialects, and corsets. Give them one of the three and they're happy.”

Last year for our actors one night i made an edible brain (i bring food stuff in frequently to everyone). I took shrimp and cut the tails off and used a circular bowl to place them in ringing them up to the top and turning them in so that the tail ends were not visible. I then made a mix of clear gelatin and marinara sauce and poured it in the bowl. I froze it overnight and by the next night at the haunt after i turned the bowl upside down and shook it out onto a plate everyone had a chilled shrimp brain to snack on....it was there i discovered my dilema....noone wanted to eat something that looked that sickining.

The TV show filmed in my house a few years ago. the host told about his dare he lost while filming in India, then he had to eat a mix of rancid blood with other nasties like bugs in it.
Two months later and his guts were still not re-settled "right".
His dare here was to eat breakfast in bed in a haunted house. Guess which bed?
hahahaha! He got scared!
Now if only they would have helped me clean up the mess like they said they were going to do.

I knew a lawyer who got sick and had almost died when he was very young. He totally mistrusted human food after that so from age 7 to age 25 he only ate baby food out of the little glass jars, he could trust this.

While slicing cheese on the meat slicer in a grocery store the cheese got hot, got real stringy/strechy, the butcher shoved one end of the long rubbery cheese up his nostril, walked out into the store, tapped the Nabisco field rep, "Rex" on the shoulder. Rex turned around, saw this light yellow 3 foot long glop coming from the butcher's nose and puked!
(They knew Rex had a weak stomach and actually kind of didn't like the guy because he was always trying to scam someone else into doing his work for him for nothing.)
..then those horendous living boogers came streaming out!
Ain't life GRAND!?"